Examiner’s report – BT/FBT Sept 19 to Aug 20
6
Questions in this part of the paper should pose no greater difficulty than those
in part A of the paper,
but for a typical candidate the part B questions will take longer to answer than part A questions due
to more reading being necessary.
Historically, candidates have performed well on several topics, including the following:
types of organisation and matching organisational types to descriptions;
characteristics of different types of organisation;
SWOT analysis, distinguishing between
strengths and opportunities, and between weaknesses and
threats;
identifying elements of the marketing mix relevant to activities and functions;
content of financial statements such as the statement of financial position and the statement of profit
or loss.
The following topics have caused difficulties for candidates:
Micro-economics:
The main area of difficulty has been the theory of the firm, in particular distinguishing between the
different types of competition, such as perfect competition, oligopoly and monopoly.
Macro-economics:
Candidates have encountered problems when dealing with some
macro-economic problems
described in scenarios. Specific problem areas have included the categories of unemployment
(structural, frictional, seasonal, etc) and supply side policies.
Marketing:
Candidates have been quite confident with questions on the marketing mix, including the extended
marketing mix. However they have sometimes found difficulty in identifying the correct stage of the
product life cycle from a description of a company and its products.
Corporate governance:
This topic is examined at an introductory level in this paper, but some candidates have difficulties in
identifying the respective roles of the Chairman and the Secretary of a company. There
also appears
to be difficulty in correctly identifying best practices and inappropriate practices in corporate
governance in the context of scenario questions.
Organisational culture:
Candidates appear to understand basic theories on organisational culture, such as Handy’s
typologies, but more detailed theories such as those proposed by Schein and Hofstede have caused
problems.
Examiner’s report – BT/FBT Sept 19 to Aug 20
7
Leadership and motivation:
Again, questions on simpler models, such as Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, are usually answered
correctly but candidates find some theories more challenging. These include Fiedler’s leadership
theory, McGregor’s theory X and Y, Herzberg’s two factor theory and Vroom’s expectancy theory.
Accounting and finance:
Questions on topics in part C of the syllabus have the highest pass rate. However, in common with
the objective test questions in part A of the paper, candidates have found difficulty in distinguishing
between internal audit and
external audit functions, including identifying activities or attributes
common to both.
Team roles:
Candidates appear to understand Tuckman’s team development theory and have correctly applied
this to short scenarios. Understandably, the more detailed team roles theory proposed by Belbin has
been more challenging. Candidates are confident when identifying the attributes of effective and
ineffective teams.
Ethics:
Candidates have had some problems with basic definitions of fundamental ethical concepts, such
as accountability, responsibility, judgement and so on, especially in matching the terms to
descriptions. Questions relating to the five fundamental principles in the ACCA Code sometimes
present difficulties.
It is possible that a minority of candidates are time pressured and make hurried
attempts at questions
on this area of the syllabus, as if they attempt the questions in sequence, the objective test question
on this area appears last.
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